The festival of jasmine will be held in French city of Gras

On the last day of July in the south of France, in the world capital of perfumes, Gras, will begin a traditional summer carnival, Fete du Jasmin. This bright colorful annual carnival is held here since 1946. For all three days, during the carnival, this small town is magically transformed. All streets and facades of the houses are decorated with flowers and flags, from all over Europe here come folklore groups, the streets are filled with street musicians. Because of the tourists coming to the festival, to find free rooms in the hotels is almost impossible, all rooms are booked in several weeks before. The festival includes theater performances, concerts, art exhibitions and balls. And in the main day of the celebration, Saturday, will be held the main event of the carnival, gala parade, during which on the streets are moving the platforms decorated with flowers, and queen of carnival Jasmine throws bouquets into the crowd of people and water them with jasmine water. In evening grandiose fireworks are arranged.

This is no accident that jasmine is a symbol of the carnival; the French consider that flower to be the king of perfumery industry. In the Middle Ages, Gras was famous for its leather industry, the most thin and soft leather gloves were made here. Then came the fashion to saturate the skin with aromatic compounds, and in the XVI century the first "house" for the production of aromatic compounds appeared in the city and Gras become the leading supplier of aromatic oils. Soon the Charter of «the corporation of glover-perfumers» was adopted. Because of the constant need of the producers in the flowers in Gras began to grow lavender, myrtle, roses, oranges and, of course, jasmine, essential oils which are used in many perfume compositions. Today, jasmine from Gras is considered to be the best in the world.

Tourists who visited Gras, will be very interested in visiting the Museum of Perfumery (Musée de la Parfumerie) where you can see all the stages of the development of perfumery art throughout the history of the city, because it is here that have been coined the most famous in the world of perfume Chanel No. 5.